About this copyright `information': I hope people aren't planning to act
on this information. What I've seen so far is pretty much completely
wrong.
If you seriously want information, national laws on copyright are
summarized in:
_Coppinger and Skone-James on Copyright_ London: Sweet & Maxwell,
use the latest edition or course (13th, I think)
or, if you don't have access to a law library, there is some basic information
in
Beth Luey (1990) _Handbook for Academic Authors_ Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Judith Butcher (1992) _Copy Editing. The Cambridge Handbook_ (3rd edn)
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Authors can and do sell various types of rights to publishers, including ALL
rights in some cases -- which means that the publishers have ALL rights, and
the authors don't. Sometimes rights revert to authors after publication;
sometimes specific types of use are reserved for authors who turn over other
rights to publishers. Some authors retain copyright. You can't generalize about
ownership of copyright.it's not possible to
Finally, limits on quotation are defined in many laws and in international
agreements. Current guidelines that we use:eep
a) from a book: 150 words (for inclusion in textbook) or 500 words for other
publications (that's 500 total, not 500 per quotation!)
b) from an article of 1000 words, roughly 50 words
c) 3 lines of poetry; fewer than 8 measures of a song
d) get permission for tables, graphs, diagrams, etc., though data can
be used without permission if source is credited
e. get permission to reproduce unpublished material
f) ditto for interviews you collect
g) ditto for the writings, homework, examples, etc., written by friends,
students, relatives, etc.
h) get permission to reproduce your own work if you have sold the copyright
to a publisher or company.
But you don''t need to believe me. Check printed sources such as the three I
listed.
Linda McPhee
Institute of Social Studies
The Hague